The soft mechanical click of the deadbolt echoed in my ears with the force of a point-blank gunshot.
I raised the metal bar and tensed. Evelyn took my left flank, hands up in a guard position, eyes locked on the entity blocking the corridor.
The beast was much shorter than the giant from the avenue. Its compact size, far from reassuring me, triggered every survival instinct I had. It shared the measurements of an average adult, but with an aberrant anatomy: disproportionately long arms, hunched shoulders, lower limbs jointed at unnatural angles. Grayish, taut skin stretched over its skeleton. A smooth, completely bald skull. And where the eyes should have been, two sunken sockets with tiny black points at the center.
The abomination tilted its head and opened its jaws wide.
"Help!" it shouted in a female voice, shrill and desperate.
I looked at Evelyn. Her face lost all color.
"Did you hear that?" I asked in a whisper.
"Completely," she replied, without taking her eyes off the creature.
The monster modulated its vocal cords again, now emitting a male tone, deep and broken.
"Please! Help me!" the beast pleaded.
A frozen knot formed in my stomach.
"Stay still," I ordered Evelyn.
She kept her eyes fixed on the entity.
"That was exactly my plan," she answered in a tense voice.
The creature curved its lips into a grotesque smile. Then it reproduced Evelyn’s exact voice.
"Gabriel, we have to help her," the beast said, imitating the doctor.
A chill ran down my spine. I tightened my grip on the steel until my knuckles whitened.
"I hate that ability," I muttered.
Evelyn stepped back, seeking distance.
"I share the feeling," she murmured.
The mimic charged forward with unnatural speed. I raised the bar to block.
CLANG!
The impact vibrated up to my shoulder and threw me backward against the wall. The blow expelled the air from my lungs.
"Gabriel!" Evelyn shouted.
She grabbed a wooden chair and hurled it forward. The beast dodged the projectile with a fluid sidestep.
"React faster!" I shouted, recovering my breath.
"I’m doing what I can!" she replied.
The monster resumed its offensive, switching targets. It lunged directly at Evelyn’s throat.
"Down!" I ordered.
Evelyn threw herself to the floor. The creature flew over her head. I seized the monster’s momentum, swung the steel, and struck its bare flank.
CRACK!
The impact hurled the mimic against the opposite wall. For a fleeting second, I celebrated the hit. Then the abomination straightened up again, completely unharmed.
"Fantastic," I said sarcastically.
The creature opened its jaws.
"Gabriel..." it pronounced in my own timbre.
The sound of my own voice bounced off the walls. I stood petrified for a fraction of a second. That hesitation cost me dearly. The mimic charged. I dropped and rolled across the floor. Its claws pierced the wallpaper, bursting the concrete millimeters from my head.
"Stop staring at it!" Evelyn shouted.
"I’m trying to regain the advantage!" I replied.
I jumped to my feet. The monster again used my exact tone.
"Run," the beast said.
A strategic idea halted my steps. The creature mastered sound mimicry, but it paused its attacks when speaking. It used its vocal replicas exclusively to disorient and paralyze its prey.
I scanned the surroundings. A landline phone. A stereo speaker. A red fire alarm embedded in the wall.
I smiled, baring my teeth.
"Evelyn," I called.
"What?" she replied.
"I need your blind trust for ten seconds."
She watched the beast’s movements.
"My level of trust depends on the stupidity of your plan," she said without looking away.
I ran straight for the phone. The mimic chased me like a shadow. I waited until the last possible millisecond and leaped aside. The creature shot past, dragged by its own inertia. I grabbed the telephone handset and smashed it against the floor. Immediately, the building’s emergency system activated.
WEEEEEE-OOO. WEEEEEE-OOO.
The beast froze. Its skull snapped sharply toward the source of the noise. There lay its weakness. Its hyperacusis.
"High frequencies stun it," I told Evelyn.
Evelyn caught the tactic on the fly.
"Then burst its eardrums," she replied.
I looked at the red alarm box and nodded.
"With absolute pleasure."
I raised the bar and dealt a direct blow to the alarm’s metal.
CLANG!
The monster let out a deafening shriek. A sharp, rasping scream that made my teeth grind. It fell to its knees, clutching its head.
Evelyn seized the opening. She lunged toward the beast, wielding a fire extinguisher ripped from the hallway, and discharged it directly onto the entity’s skull.
BAM!
The mimic collapsed to the floor.
I looked at her, raising an eyebrow.
"Lots of pent-up aggression," I said.
Evelyn breathed deeply, her chest heaving.
"Completely," she replied.
The monster tried to push itself up on its claws. We interrupted its recovery instantly. I dealt a heavy blow with the bar. Evelyn finished it off with the red cylinder. The body ceased all movement. The fire alarm continued its racket in the background.
I approached the corpse cautiously. The blue interface bloomed in my retina.
[HOSTILE ENTITY DEFEATED.]
[Classification: Mimic.]
[Level: 2.]
I blinked, processing the data.
"Level two?" I murmured.
Evelyn turned toward me.
"What’s happening?" she asked.
"Deciphering some variables," I replied.
I knelt beside the beast. The corpse began an accelerated decomposition process, dissolving into a thick dark mist. When the dust fully dissipated, a sharp black crystal remained resting on the floor tiles. It was small, about the size of a thumb, and emanated a polar cold, almost painful to the touch. A faint, rhythmic pulse throbbed inside it, like a heartbeat.
The interface updated.
[Rupture Fragment obtained.]
[Unknown object.]
[Origin: Mimic core.]
[Status: Inert / Dormant.]
[Interaction with Resonance: Confirmed.]
[Note: The System cannot fully analyze this object. Further data required.]
I picked it up. The cold bit into my fingers, but I didn’t let go.
Evelyn examined the dark gem.
"What is that?" she asked.
"I don’t know its nature," I admitted.
"Is it dangerous?" she insisted.
I assessed the System’s response.
[Analysis incomplete.]
"Highly likely," I said.
"Perfect," Evelyn murmured.
I put the crystal in my pocket. It weighed almost nothing. But somehow, I knew it was important. More important than anything else I had found that night.
Our attention returned to the coffee table. The mobile phone remained connected to a small Bluetooth speaker. The audio file playback had ended.
Evelyn examined the device.
"This setup was the bait. They brought us straight into the wolf’s mouth," she said.
I nodded.
"Someone prepared the stage meticulously," I replied.
We checked the rest of the apartment. A door open at the back of the hallway led us to a bedroom. The stench of copper invaded our nostrils before we crossed the threshold. Stagnant blood.
The corpse of a man rested leaning against the wall. His clothes were intact, no visible external wounds. His face was frozen in an expression of absolute terror, eyes wide open, mouth agape.
Evelyn knelt beside him, pressed two fingers against his cold neck, and shook her head.
"Rigor incipiente. He’s been dead between two and four hours," she reported. Then she frowned, pressing her fingers more firmly against his jaw.
"Wait. This doesn’t make sense."
"What?" I asked.
"The ambient temperature, the lividity patterns... this man has been dead longer than four hours. Much longer." She looked up at me, her expression troubled. "Unless he died before the apocalypse started. Before the sky cracked."
A cold knot formed in my stomach.
"Before?" I repeated.
"Before," she confirmed.
I examined his torso. His clothes were intact.
"No visible external wounds. Cause of death?" I asked.
Evelyn palpated the chest area.
"Impossible to determine at a glance," she replied.
I requested a silent scan.
[BASIC ANALYSIS.]
[Cause of death: Unknown.]
[Residual energy presence detected.]
[Note: Energy trace predates the current Rupture event.]
I stood absorbed in the blue letters.
"The same energy trace from the supermarket," I murmured. "But older. Much older."
Evelyn looked up sharply.
"What did you just say?" she asked.
"Thinking out loud," I replied.
I kept my mouth shut. Exposing the System’s existence to her still represented a tactical risk. But she didn’t push. She just filed it away, like she filed everything else.
Beside the body rested a camping backpack. I checked its contents: dry food rations, water bottles, a shortwave radio, and a worn leather notebook.
I opened the pages. The initial sheets contained an obsessive record of dates, coordinates, intersections, and times. Further on, a pattern of warnings filled the lines.
The real danger dwells beyond the monsters.
A chill ran down the back of my neck.
"Evelyn," I called.
She came to my shoulder and read the inked lines.
"What does he mean?" she asked.
I turned to the next page.
Under no circumstances allow the towers to detect you.
I snapped the notebook shut, my pulse accelerating. The tower. The black obelisk floating over the city. The same pillar of light the System had ordered me to evade at all costs.
"What’s wrong?" Evelyn asked, noticing my tension.
"This man foresaw the descent of that structure," I replied.
She took the notebook between her stained hands.
"Who the hell was he?" she said.
"I wish we had that answer," I replied.
The portable radio emitted an electric crackle.
KRRRSHHH.
We both froze. A metallic voice emerged from the speaker.
"To all survivors with reception capability..." said the transmission.
Evelyn pressed her ear to the device. The voice continued.
"Avoid the city center at all costs. The beasts represent a secondary risk."
I exchanged a glance with Evelyn. The words matched the diary’s warning exactly.
Static drowned the signal for a couple of seconds.
"If you possess active abilities..." said the voice.
I stood petrified.
"...keep them hidden within the towers’ range," concluded the transmission.
The signal cut off abruptly.
A dense silence flooded the bedroom. Evelyn confronted me.
"Abilities?" she asked.
I chose silence.
"Gabriel," she insisted.
"I lack a glossary for this disaster," I replied.
She scrutinized me with her sharp eyes.
"Your body language gives you away completely. You’re lying," she said.
The radio resumed its broadcast before I could fabricate an excuse.
KRRRSHHH.
"I repeat the warning..." The voice now sounded choppy, drowned by interference. "To anyone listening... Always distrust..."
The transmission died for good.
I looked at the black device. The blue interface materialized.
[Transmission origin: Unknown.]
[Frequency: Encrypted.]
[WARNING.]
[The transmission violates security protocols. Information classified as lethal.]
I frowned, internalizing my doubt.
"Lethal to whom?" I asked quietly.
Three seconds of delay. A new line appeared.
[To the current user.]
My jaw tightened. That confirmation churned my stomach.
I shoved the radio into the backpack quickly.
"We’re getting out of this apartment right now," I said.
Evelyn nodded, slinging the backpack over her shoulder.
"Let’s go," she replied.
We left the apartment, stepping cautiously. The stillness of the building was oppressive. We began the descent down the stairs. Upon reaching the landing that led to the main lobby, a visual detail stopped me cold.
The front door rested wide open. Fresh bloodstains marked the tiles. Numerous military boot prints dirtied the floor.
I followed the trail with my eyes. They all pointed toward the building’s interior. The path back to the street was conspicuously absent.
Evelyn peered over my shoulder.
"That trail indicates severe problems," she whispered.
"I share the diagnosis," I replied in a low voice.
Hoarse murmurs echoed on the ground floor.
I raised my index finger to my lips, ordering absolute silence, and we hid behind the thick stairwell wall.
Three armed individuals entered the lobby, followed by a fourth who closed the formation. They carried shotguns and automatic rifles. They walked with predatory synchronization, scanning the surroundings with tactical professionalism.
The squad leader, a burly man with a bulletproof vest, kicked the pulverized remains of the mimic at the entrance.
"Another idiot took the fake audio bait," the leader said.
My stomach lurched violently. The auditory trap had no monstrous origin. It had been planted by humans.
One of the mercenaries adjusted the safety on his weapon.
"Do you estimate multiple prey, boss?" he asked.
"They rarely travel alone," the leader replied, pointing at the stairs with the barrel of his rifle. "Sweep every level."
"Standard protocol if we find survivors?" another insisted.
The leader curved his lips into a merciless smile.
"Summary execution and full looting," he ordered.
Evelyn squeezed my arm, gasping for air.
"Who the hell are they?" she whispered.
I shook my head, keeping my eyes fixed on the attackers.
"I don’t know, but their objective is clear," I murmured.
I was unaware of their affiliation. However, their intention was suffocatingly clear. These men were using the apocalypse as a private hunting ground.
The leader raised his gaze toward the stairwell.
"Keep your eyes open. The tower emitted an active search pulse in this quadrant. They’re looking for a user. If we find him first, the reward will be astronomical," he said.
I felt the air leave my lungs. The confirmation hit with the force of a hammer.
Evelyn looked at me, asking for instructions. I kept silent. Explaining the situation made no sense in the face of imminent crossfire.
For the first time since the sky fractured, a freezing epiphany crossed my mind. The abominations operated under a predictable binary code. They killed by biological instinct. That animal brutality was far more honest. The human threat possessed a sinister complexity. They fabricated auditory setups, smiled, and organized labyrinths of false hope to push you straight into the slaughterhouse.
I pressed the solid steel bar against my chest.
The men began their ascent up the steps.
Evelyn held my gaze.
"What do we do?" she asked.
I assessed the exit blocked by the mercenaries, the assault rifles, and the mimic’s ash trail. I exhaled slowly, preparing my muscles for the imminent impact.
"The beasts, in retrospect, were a simpler problem," I said in a whisper. "Now we’re facing something worse."
Evelyn nodded, clenching her fists.
"Then let’s make them regret having hunted us," she replied.